I'm hoping this will just be a source of amusement for my fellow installers, I mean surely people don't *actually* fall for this kind of stuff any more?
However, I received an email a couple of days back from "scottwalter447 at gmail.com" (might be a genuine account that has been hacked, or may have been purpose built for this). Either way, this distinguished fellow started off with
"Hello, This is Scott, I would like to know if you do Home Theater installation and if you accept credit card as a form of payment"Credit card huh? Man gets right to the point. Always good to find those customers that don't come right out and ask the cost... So I wrote back to say yes we did, and yes we could. His response was:
"Okay I want you to install 42inch to the parlor with bose system installation and the bedroom 32inch TV (3) with the in-wall speakers.Will you be able to do that for me?"Now I don't know about you, but most of my clients who can afford my time tend to have at least a bachelors from an good college and know how to spell, punctuate and write a vaguely decent email. Not all of them mind, but some of that wording was looking juuust a little "Nigerian". Not to risk looking a gift horse in the mouth, I forged on regardless, after all, you just never know.
I replied that I could, but that I would need to know which neighborhood, and suggested that he might want to know our hourly rate. He gave me a street address (which is undoubtedly not his) and asked me to give him an estimate.
I was surprised but flattered that he was giving me his address even before the first date - the guy moves quickly! I said I wouldn't be able to talk numbers without, yanno, seeing the place, cos I'm kinda picky like that when it comes to doing quotes. I also mentioned a need for a deposit prior to starting work. His reply...
"Okay no problem but i am out of the town for my Ailment and i will also need a little favor from you...."Ahhhhh, now we get to it. I know that some people have a high opinion of this fair city, but there are plenty who would argue as to whether it is THE TOWN, and who on earth talks of an "ailment"... well who outside of those born in the Victorian era...
This was looking more and more "Nigerian Prince"-like by the moment. Shouldn't be long now before he delivers the money shot, I thought. I asked him to clarify just what this favor might be... after all, I had no daughters of marriageable age that I was looking to get rid of...
"I need to pay the Ex Owner a balance before you can work on the property and the problem is that he does not have access to cards and i am out of the town for my Ailment. can you please help me add his remaining balance.so i'll give you my card info to put thru for sum of $4600. once the funds hit your acct you will be holding $500 as a deposit for the work need to be done. and you will send the remaining $4000 to the Realtor via bank cash deposit and $100 as tip for you,once he receive the money he will make the keys available to you so that you can carry out your work on the installation."Bingo! We have a winner. That was as much as I needed to file a proper scammer report with google (which you can do here
[Link: support.google.com])
I did actually send him one more reply, where I laughed, before I blocked the address and came here.
I'm a little sad that these scams happen electronically, I would so love to hear the fool who tried to make this work over the telephone. I would have so much fun stringing them along, to the point where the drool was starting to come through the receiver, before laughing hysterically at them and hanging up.
I imagine others may have had a similar experience, but if this posting saves someone from a similar fate, it will have served its purpose!
